Yahoo Article:
"High Tech Kids Lost in Face-to-Face Relationships"It took me a little while to think about how I actually felt about this article. Then I realized that the direction of discussion was missing an important point. - It's not text messaging, social network websites, cell phones or computers that is impacting face-to-face relationships, but the fact that these devices are used as an excuse for already poor social habits. Ones which are formed in the day to day experiences one has at home. Yes, it's all in the family.
I happen to be a "child of the 90's" - early nineties, but still grew up with the notion of social interaction, over the internet, with people I have never met personally. Yet, I still prefer to have real time physical interaction with an individual than any number of technological communication. Even the fact that other adults (many of which far elder than I), use their iPhones and PDAs and Blackberries during meetings just goes to show that it is not a matter of "growing up with technology", but rather a much more elemental factor - a matter of ethics. One does not learn communication through technology, but through the interactions that one experiences as a child before learning to use said technologies.
It has been a growing, although not so foreign, trend for parents to be unavailable to their children on a face-to-face basis, due to work, schedule, or any number of things. Often times children are given a cell phone as a means of communicating with their parents, but then learn to use it for all of their communication needs. They then learn, from this example, to only use this extended form of communication as their primary method. Interestingly though, I have yet to see children who play sports or are involved in other social activities with other children to exhibit problems interacting socially on a face-to-face basis. Simply going to school is not the answer - the setting of the classroom does not specifically allow for social interaction.
As for the adults in this world that continue to bring their electronic devices to meetings that are then a distraction translates from a problem not so dissimilar from the aforementioned. This type of self-gratuitous distraction stems from the individual's work ethic. It is not a form of social retardation. These people are actually social butterflies and have not been able to control their need for communicating at all times with other people - most of whom they already know personally. The work ethic of an individual is always instilled at an early age and has as much to do with parenting as does the ability to communicate.
I do not think that "this is a phase" or that it is only a trend that will wane with a slackening of popularity. On the contrary, social networking sites are growing exponentially on a daily basis. The name of the site may change, but the need for people to connect on some level or another with other people will still be there - albeit a more remote type of connection. For those that have hundreds of people on their "friends" list that they have not met, I encourage them to reach out and actually meet some of them. I can proudly say that I have actually met personally, at least once, almost everyone on my list save for maybe 5-10 individuals. I know people who will not "friend" others whom they have not met personally. It really all boils down to a matter of choice. Internet interaction only becomes a crutch if an individual does not recognize or engage in any type of one-on-one social interaction.